F1 Abu Dhabi GP Live Commentary and Updates – FP1

The final FP1 of the season is go! 

Air temperature is 27.9C, track temp is 41.7C and the wind is blowing in a westerly direction (providing a headwind into Turn 1) at around 3m/s.

And thank you to the FIA weather report for the obvious in the glorious UAE sun, there is a 0% chance of rain for the coming session. 

So much housekeeping this week, but with three minutes before the session begins, I think we’re just about up to date!

On top of this all, Jack Doohan makes his official Alpine debut one race weekend early, after Esteban Ocon was relieved of his duties following the Qatar weekend. 

Beyond the younger Leclerc, Ryo Hirakawa stands in for Oscar Piastri at McLaren, Felipe Drugovich is on for Lance Stroll at Aston Martin, Isack Hadjar replaces Max Verstappen at Red Bull, Ayumu Iwasa is in for Yuki Tsunoda at RB and Luke Browning stands in for Alex Albon at Williams. 

But away from all that, we have a few rookie drivers in for FP1, notably Arthur Leclerc at Ferrari, marking the first time that brothers will have driven for the same team at the same time in an official F1 session. 

There’s a lot to breakdown from the drama, and fortunately, Ben Hunt has done exactly that for us. 

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/ben-hunt-russells-fury-with-verstappen-is-all-part-of-his-development/10679570/ 

Then, in the FIA press conference, Verstappen responded by commenting: “If I had to do it again, maybe I would have said even more, knowing the outcome of the race result,” this regarding his previous public criticism of Russell. 

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/verstappen-would-have-said-even-more-about-lying-russell/10679464/ 

Firstly, Russell made the accusation that Verstappen had said he would “put me on my f****** head in the wall” after receiving his one-place grid penalty in Qatar. 

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/russell-slams-verstappen-after-revealing-put-me-on-my-fg-head-in-the-wall-threat/10679451/ 

The weekend has already been a dramatic one with George Russell and Max Verstappen continuing their spat which began in Qatar. 

Good morning and welcome to first practice for the final weekend of a marathon F1 season at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.